The story
Founded in 1967 by Michael A. McNeilly and others, Applied Materials went public in 1972 on the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (NASDAQ), a then-recently established stock exchange. In subsequent years, the company diversified, until James C. Morgan became CEO in 1976 and returned the company's focus to its core business of semiconductor manufacturing equipment. By 1978, sales increased by 17%.
In 1984, Applied Materials became the first U.S. semiconductor equipment manufacturer to open its own technology center in Japan, and the first semiconductor equipment company to operate a service center in China. In 1987, Applied introduced a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) machine called the Precision 5000, which differed from existing machines by incorporating diverse processes into a single machine that had multiple process chambers.
In 1992, the corporation settled a lawsuit with three former employees for an estimated $600,000. The suit complained that the employees had been driven out of the company after complaining about the courses Applied Scholastics had been hired to teach there.
In 1993, the Applied Materials' Precision 5000 was inducted into the Smithsonian Institution's permanent collection of Information Age technology.
In November 1996, Applied Materials acquired two Israeli companies for an aggregate amount of $285 million: Opal Technologies and Orbot Instruments for $175 million and $110 million in cash, respectively. Orbot produces systems for inspecting patterned silicon wafers for yield enhancement during the semiconductor manufacturing process, as well as systems for inspecting masks used during the patterning process. Opal develops and manufactures high-speed metrology systems used by semiconductor manufacturers to verify critical dimensions during the production of integrated circuits.
In 2000, Etec Systems, Inc. was purchased. On June 27, 2001, Applied Materials acquired Israeli company Oramir Semiconductor Equipment Ltd., a supplier of laser cleaning technologies for semiconductor wafers, in a purchase business combination for $21 million in cash.
In January 2008, Applied Materials purchased Baccini, an Italian company and designer of tools used in manufacturing solar cells.
In 2009, Applied Materials opened its Solar Technology Center, the world's largest commercial solar energy research and development facility, in Xi'an, China.
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Applied Materials acquired Semitool Inc. in December 2009, and announced its acquisition of Varian Semiconductor in May 2011. Applied Materials then announced a planned merger with Tokyo Electron on September 24, 2013. If it had been approved by government regulators, the proposed combined company, to be called Eteris, would have been the world's largest supplier of semiconductor processing equipment, with a total market value of $29 billion. However, on April 27, 2015, Applied Materials announced that its merger with Tokyo Electron has been scrapped due to antitrust concerns and fears of dominating the semiconductor equipment industry.
In 2015, Applied Materials left the solar wafer sawing and the solar ion implantation businesses.
Applied Materials was named among FORTUNE World's Most Admired Companies in 2018.
In 2019, Applied Materials announced its intention to buy semiconductor equipment manufacturer (and former Hitachi group member) Kokusai Electric Corporation from private equity firm KKR for $2.2 billion, but terminated the deal in March 2021 citing delays in getting approval from China's regulator.
In November 2023, Applied Materials was reported to be under criminal investigation by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) for routing equipment to Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation via South Korea in violation of US sanctions. The company settled with the DOJ, paying a penalty of 252 million dollars in February 2026. The settlement was the largest of its kind to date. The US government recovered the largest fine possible, which is twice the value of the illegal transaction.
On August 15, 2025, Applied Materials shares tumbled 12% after issuing weak sales and profit forecasts, with U.S.-China trade tensions weighing heavily on demand and visibility.
In September 2026, Applied Materials announced plans to invest $5 billion in India over the following decade under an initiative it described as "India Vision 2035", unveiled at SEMICON India 2026 in New Delhi as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the conference. The plan centers on research, supply-chain expansion and workforce development, and includes a proposed 140-acre semiconductor research park and a plan to expand the company's India-based supply-chain capacity roughly tenfold by 2035.
From Wikipedia’s article on Applied Materials, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.8